Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Another Day, Another Convicted Felon

Former state Senate Majority Leader Chuck Chvala was found guilty of two felonies today and is headed to jail. Under the plea agreement presented to Dane County Judge David Flanagan this morning, Chvala pleaded guilty to misconduct in office and arranging illegal campaign contributions.

As part of the plea deal, prosecutors and Chvala's defense team agreed to recommend a six-month jail sentence, two years probation and a fine of up to $5,500. Judge Flanagan is not bound by that recommendation when he sentences Chvala in early December, and could sentence him to as much as five years in prison for the two felonies. In sentencing Chvala, the judge needs to think of the message he will be sending to the Capitol and the people of Wisconsin. The harsher the punishment, the stronger the message.

Chvala was charged in October 2002 with 20 felonies, including extortion. More than a year earlier, the Democracy Campaign obtained a confidential memo from a prominent lobbyist to his special interest clients detailing how Chvala would "not look favorably upon groups" that did not meet his demands for campaign contributions. We made the memo public and then followed up with research showing that the special interest donors changed their giving patterns in response to Chvala's demands.

News coverage of the revelations soon turned into calls for an investigation. The criminal probe of Chvala, already implicated in the caucus scandal involving the misuse of state offices and staffers for electioneering purposes, expanded to include the allegations of pay to play.

The criminal complaint against Chvala also detailed a Tom DeLay-style money laundering scheme that routed corporate contributions that are illegal in Wisconsin through out-of-state committees and back to a front group Chvala directed to benefit Senate candidates he favored. The Democracy Campaign and the national Center for Responsive Politics first blew the whistle on the shadowy operation back in 1999 and later provided state investigators information about the activities as they conducted a probe that ultimately led to the criminal charges against Chvala.

Based on what we know about Chvala's dealings, he deserves more than six months in jail with work release privileges. Having said that, here's hoping the fact that one of the most powerful politicians in Wisconsin is now a convicted felon will serve as a wake-up call to the new bosses at the Capitol and citizens who have retreated from public life. If there ever has been a time when citizens need to reengage in public affairs, this is it.

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Poll Says Today's Politicians Really Suck

Politicians love polls. Most of them won't move a muscle unless a trusted pollster tells them it's safe. But here's a poll the State Capitol crowd won't know what to do with. A citizen survey released today by the self-described "free market think tank" Wisconsin Policy Research Institute found that only 6% of Wisconsin residents believe their elected officials represent the interests of their constituents on important issues.

Most believe public officials are just looking out for themselves or doing the bidding of special interests, the poll found. WPRI said the "most stunning number" was that the survey found no African Americans believe their elected officials put constituents' interests first.

State residents also believe their elected representatives have lowered their ethical standards and that ethics in government is getting worse, the survey shows. WPRI's report says the "widespread feeling that the institutions in Madison were deteriorating ethically produced the highest negative numbers we have seen in our polling going back to 1991."

The report goes on to say there are "no demographic groups in Wisconsin who believe the ethics in Madison have improved over the last decade. One of the major problems, looking at the total results, is that our elected officials and citizens are moving further apart. Wisconsin residents seem to have much less confidence in their elected officials and are questioning the ethics of their government institutions. These downward trends are not good for Wisconsin government. Unfortunately, Wisconsin citizens are clearly saying that they think lobbyists have much more influence than they do, and that is negatively affecting the ethics in state government."

Thursday, October 13, 2005

SBC Just Loves Stem Cell Research

We issued a report yesterday on Governor Jim Doyle's fundraising during the first half of 2005 that showed he received more than $200,000 in campaign donations from out-of-state donors from January to June. Among the contributions was nearly $6,000 from SBC Communications executives in Texas. The donations were made shortly before the telecommunications giant got a $116 million state contract to design a new video and data network for the state and University of Wisconsin System.

Doyle campaign manager Rich Judge told the Associated Press there's no connection between the campaign contributions and the contract. He told the AP reporter that Doyle "has developed a national reputation on a number of issues, including stem cell research, that have moved people to give him money."

Friday, October 07, 2005

Special Interest Protection Act

Republican Senator Dave Zien and Representative Scott Suder want Democratic Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager to stop picking on the special interests who give them a lot of money.

Zien and Suder say a law is needed to prevent attorney generals from suing mostly white collar types for polluting, damaging natural resources, endangering public health and other crimes. Zien is best known for his annual efforts to legalize concealed weapons and Suder is best known for getting a legislative aide job in 1998 but not being able to remember what kind of work he did.

“She has abused the power that voters placed in her through vigilante tactics aimed at private citizens and businesses,’’ said Zien.

The pair says the proposal was prompted by complaints from groups representing farmers, businesses, cranberry growers, realtors, developers, utilities and others. Zien says the attorney general should stick to “real criminals” rather than going after “…the very people they are elected to protect…”

Hmmmm. But a look at the numbers shows why these two cowboys are so upset.

Zien, who has raised $384,120 in large individual and political action committee contributions since 1993, has accepted $141,976 or 37 percent of his contributions from manufacturers, business, construction, real estate, agriculture and utility interests. Zien ranks No. 3 in contributions at $2,675 from cranberry growers who are exempt from many state environmental regulations.

Suder, who was elected in 1998, has raised $137,426 in large individual and PAC contributions, including $45,797 or 33 percent from the special interests his bill would protect.

Georgia-Pacific On His Mind

Papermaking giant Georgia-Pacific announced plans October 4 to lay off hundreds of its Green Bay plant employees almost a year to the day after it was handed a forgivable $500,000 state loan by Governor Jim Doyle to help retrain the plant’s employees.

The October 5, 2004 giveaway was sandwiched in between $5,000 worth of campaign contributions the company’s political action committee gave to Doyle between October 2003 and March 2005. He received $1,000 worth of those contributions a week after the company received the loan. Doyle had not received any contributions from company executives before becoming governor.

On top of the loan, Doyle wrote budgets or signed bills to create a $45 million a year corporate tax cut and a $26 million a year sales tax exemption on electricity used in manufacturing, both of which benefit Georgia-Pacific. More directly, he approved a $1 million a year break on garbage disposal fees paid by paper companies to pay for disposing PCBs they dumped in the Fox River, and $2.1 million in state spending to rebuild a dock wall for the company.

All of this for a company that had profits of $359 million in 2003 and $771 million in 2004. Georgia-Pacific executive Pete Correll gushed about the company’s 2004 performance in a February 1, 2005 press release: “This has been an outstanding year for Georgia-Pacific.”

But those big profits and a heaping helping of corporate welfare from the state apparently don’t satisfy the company’s appetite. The company said its recent round of layoffs and plant downsizing are designed to save $100 million a year in hopes of boosting profits to $1.2 billion by the end of 2006.

This episode echoes the findings in a Wisconsin Democracy Campaign report that shows millions in state assistance going to large multi-national corporations that do not need it or create few if any good jobs but which make large campaign contributions.

The practice even prompted former Republican Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen, a longtime darling of big business and other powerful special interests, to say last March that “I’m afraid we’re turning into rubes here in state government” because the state gives away money and breaks every time a business claims to have better offers in other states.

Thursday, October 06, 2005

Brian Burke: Convicted Felon And Lobbyist In Good Standing

Brian Burke, once the powerful co-chairman of the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee and odds-on favorite to be elected state attorney general, is now a convicted felon and is headed to jail. He is about to lose his freedom and probably his law license, but not his lobbying credentials. According to the state Ethics Board, which seemingly has never seen ethical corner-cutting it could not tolerate, Burke can remain a licensed lobbyist. Apparently, the Ethics Board is OK with him calling clients and lawmakers from a prison cell.

As we reported in a previous blog, after Burke quit the attorney general race and left the Senate to turn his attention to his legal defense, he was hired by Appleton paper company Arjo Wiggins to lobby for the company.

Not to be outdone by the Ethics Board when it comes to adding insult to injury already done to Wisconsin's battered reputation for clean government, the Elections Board says it has no problem with Burke paying restitution to the state's taxpayers for money he stole from the public treasury with campaign funds he collected by shaking down special interest donors. Fortunately, Burke's prosecutor, Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard, says he'll ask the judge in the case to prohibit the use of campaign contributions to pay restitution. Stay tuned.

Paving New Ground

The Operating Engineers Local 139 political action committee is paving new ground. The once-staunch contributor to Democratic candidates for the Legislature and statewide office gave $4,000 of its $18,276 in campaign contributions to two GOP leadership committees – the Republican Assembly Campaign Committee and the Committee to Elect a Republican Senate – during the first six months of 2005.

The latest contributions coincide with the exit of the union’s political coordinator, Joe Wineke, a former Democratic state senator and now head of the state Democratic Party. Before this year, the Operating Engineers had given only $1,000 worth of its $140,328 in contributions to Republicans from 1993 through 2004.

The union appears to be hedging its bets and contributing to Republicans, who control the Senate and Assembly, like other wealthy special interests WDC has identified before.

The 9,000-member union frequently sides with the influential road building industry to come down on critics who want to cut new road projects or the taxes people pay to build them.

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Another One Cops A Plea

Former Senator Brian Burke, once the odds-on favorite to be elected state attorney general, will be convicted tomorrow of crimes related to the Capitol corruption scandal under a plea agreement he has reached with prosecutors.

Burke is expected to plead guilty to at least one felony and one misdemeanor. He was facing 13 felony charges.

The Democracy Campaign first blew the whistle on Burke's political activities in February 2002, noting irregularities on his campaign finance report suggesting he was running his attorney general campaign out of his state office. Burke came under investigation shortly thereafter, and quit the attorney general race in May of that same year. He was criminally charged about a month later.

Burke will be the second leading lawmaker convicted on corruption charges. Former Senator Gary George, like Burke a Milwaukee Democrat, pleaded guilty to fraud related to a kickback scheme and is serving a four-year prison term.

Thursday, September 29, 2005

It Pays To Protest

Public outrage over Wisconsin's disastrous agreement with Accenture LLP to develop the state's voter registration system already had forced changes to the contract protecting voter privacy and enabling state officials to inspect the computer source code the company writes to program the computers used for voter registration. Now it looks like public scrutiny is saving state taxpayers millions.

At this week's Elections Board meeting, Accenture spokeswoman Meg McLaughlin claimed that the company already has spent more than $20 million on the project. Under the voter-list contract, Accenture is due to receive $13.9 million for its work. In May, Elections Board director Kevin Kennedy publicly stated that he was open to giving Accenture more money. But now that possibility has been effectively closed off, thanks to public pressure. Board members now all insist that Accenture will not get a penny more than the contract calls for.

Kennedy once described the Elections Board and Accenture as "partners." The marriage appears to be on the rocks. Two weeks ago, Kennedy shot off a letter to McLaughlin pinning the blame squarely on Accenture for Wisconsin's certain failure to meet the looming January 1 federal deadline to have a working computerized voter registration system. This week, McLaughlin fired back, pointing fingers at the state and devoting eight pages to a point-by-point description of all the ways Kennedy has parted company with the truth.

Thursday, September 22, 2005

Little House Of Horrors

If anyone is still wondering why the state Assembly is called the "lower house" of the Legislature, look no further than what one reporter called the "bizarre turn of events" when the GOP-led body apparently voted to override Governor Jim Doyle's veto of higher payments to nursing homes serving patients in the state's Medicaid program.

The Assembly's presiding officer, Republican Steve Freese, refused to allow Milwaukee Democrat Pedro Colon to cast his vote, which would have sustained the governor's veto. When the vote was being tallied, Colon was talking to Republican representatives in the Assembly parlor. When Colon returned from the parlor he was not allowed to register his vote, although it is the longstanding custom of the Assembly to record the votes of temporarily absent members. Meanwhile, the Republicans Colon was speaking to at the time he missed his vote had their votes recorded, meaning their seat mates pushed their voting buttons for them although they weren't physically present – a common practice that technically isn't allowed under Assembly rules.

When asked by reporters to explain his actions in the wake of all this childishness, Freese said it is not his responsibility to make sure people are in their seats and voting, and went on to say that at times in the past he hasn't called missing people in for votes because they had been mean to him.

The whole hullabaloo most likely will end up being academic, since overriding a veto requires a two-thirds vote in both houses of the Legislature. It is considered highly improbable that the Senate will be able to muster a two-thirds majority to reverse the nursing home veto.

Just in case you're laboring under the mistaken impression that truth is stranger than fiction only in the Assembly, check out this and this about Senator Tom Reynolds, a Wauwatosa Republican who even right-wing radio talk show host Charlie Sykes calls a "nut job." Reynolds once proposed creating a private Autobahn next to I-94 where drivers could drive as fast as they want for a fee. Now he's one of three legislators working to end election-day voter registration, a longstanding tradition in Wisconsin that is widely credited for higher than average voter turnout in the state.

Then there's the revelation that an aide to another state senator made more than 200 calls during work hours on a state phone to a campaign worker for Menomonee Falls municipal candidates the aide supported. Phone records show that the aide to River Hills Republican Alberta Darling, Chris Slinker, also put in a call to an Appleton print shop that produced campaign materials for Menomonee Falls trustee candidates.

You'd think the fact that five of the most powerful politicians in Wisconsin face criminal trials for misusing state offices and taxpayer money in this same way would serve as a cautionary tale for staffers like Slinker, who now plans to challenge fellow Republican Sue Jeskewitz for the Assembly seat she currently holds in a 2006 GOP primary. Indeed, Slinker says "I would have to be a complete idiot to (do campaign work) from the office."

Like Forrest Gump's mama used to tell him, "stupid is as stupid does."

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

The Wisconsin Equivalent Of FEMA

Wisconsin's decision to outsource work on the development of a federally mandated voter registration system is backfiring big time. The project already was plagued by cost overruns, but now we find out through an open records request that there are so many bugs in the computer system being developed for the state by Accenture that Wisconsin will not meet the federal government's final January 1, 2006 deadline for state compliance with voter registration requirements in the 2002 Help America Vote Act (HAVA).

The Elections Board's response to this revelation has been positively FEMA-like. First, the board looked for someone else to blame. The most convenient culprit was the "unrealistic deadline set by Congress." Pointing fingers at the feds is always a sound damage-control strategy, so long as no one notices that Wisconsin was granted a two-year extension from the law's original implementation deadline of January 1, 2004 or that states like Minnesota already have completed the work and complied with the federal law, at a fraction of the cost of Wisconsin's contract with Accenture.

Then, just as President Bush was nonchalant in the wake of Hurricane Katrina's devastation and federal homeland security officials were caught unaware of desperate conditions in the Superdome and convention center, Elections Board director Kevin Kennedy claimed in a press release issued yesterday that voter list problems are "not unique" to Wisconsin and, besides, the board is just now learning of Accenture's failings.

Mimicking ousted FEMA director Michael Brown, Kennedy says the board "learned last week of similar situations" in other states that have contracts with Accenture. "Brownie" made the mistake of not watching TV, where images of the human suffering were being beamed to an international audience. Kennedy evidently neglected to read the newspaper, where word of Accenture's screw-ups in other states has been reported since at least early March.

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Bopping The Donkey

It looks like indicted former Senate Democratic leader Chuck Chvala has enlisted a most unlikely legal ally as he tries to beat a rap that includes felony charges of extortion, illegal campaign contributions and criminal misconduct in public office. Word is Chvala has added nationally prominent right-wing attorney James Bopp to his legal defense team.

This is the same James Bopp who serves as general counsel for the anti-abortion group National Right to Life. It is the same James Bopp who has led the legal fight against campaign finance reform and who unsuccessfully tried to get the national McCain-Feingold campaign reform law overturned in court. In fact, if you Google Bopp, the top result of the search is "Find a Republican Lawyer."

Thursday, September 08, 2005

Tee Up Those Checkbooks

There’s nothing like having a key committee vote on a controversial legislative proposal shortly before a fundraising event in order to maximize a special interest’s gratitude – in cash.

On Friday, September 2 the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Insurance recommended 6-1 that the full Senate reject an Assembly proposal to require insurance companies to pay for much of the cost of removing polychlorinated biphenyls – PCBs – that were dumped in the Fox River by paper companies from the 1950s to the 1970s.

Both the committee and the Senate are controlled by Republicans.

First, the vote was scheduled on the Friday afternoon before Labor Day weekend to give it as little attention as possible.

But second, the favorable vote for insurance companies also came less than a week before the Committee to Elect a Republican Senate’s $1,000 per person golf fundraiser scheduled September 8 at Sentry Insurance’s golf course in Stevens Point.

Hmmmmm. . . committee action, fundraiser, any connection?

Kegglers Fess Up

Most special interest groups routinely claim they contribute to political candidates out of civic duty and for other altruistic reasons and staunchly deny that they target their contributions to go to legislative leaders and others in key positions to move their agenda.

But every so often one of them, like the Bowling Proprietors of America, tells it like it really is. Check this out.

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

Bowling For Gard

Bowling interests want to throw a strike with Assembly Bill 414, a proposed statewide smoking ban that would not cover them and prevent communities from enacting local laws that would.

Like many other special interests, they’ve figured the best way to do that it to give the Assembly’s head pin, Speaker John Gard, some cash for his 8th District Congressional campaign.

Gard’s campaign received a $1,000 contribution on June 14 from the Bowling Proprietors of America. It was one of only three contributions the group gave to federal candidates nationwide from April through June. This group has never made political action committee contributions to any Wisconsin candidate for statewide office or the Legislature.

On June 21, the Assembly Rules Committee, which determines the schedule of proposals the Assembly will debate, altered the Assembly’s June 23 calendar by making AB414 “a special order of business.” That’s legislative jargon “for urgent matters and for proposals of particular interest to the party leadership,” according to the Legislative Reference Bureau.

The proposal narrowly passed 48-45 with Gard voting ‘aye.’ It awaits Senate action.

WI Contributions To Shadow Groups Nearly $291,000 In First Half Of '05

Wisconsin corporations and individuals contributed $290,876 to groups that can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money to pay for negative political advertising and other electioneering activities during the first six months of 2005.

So-called 527 groups like the well-known America Coming Together and Swift Boat Veterans for Truth are named for the Internal Revenue Service code that regulates them.

Ten of Wisconsin’s 107 contributors doled out $10,000 or more in contributions during the six-month period. Topping the list was Daniel Bader, of Milwaukee, a long-time generous giver to Democratic candidates and organizations, at $50,000; and Mary and Terry Kohler, of Sheboygan, who have been big contributors to Republican candidates and conservative causes, at $45,000.

The top five 527 recipients of Wisconsin contributions are the Democratic Governors Association at $90,000; three pro-Republican groups – the Club for Growth at $51,950, College Republican National Committee at $37,235 and GOPAC at $36,950; and the pro-Democratic Laborers Political League Education Fund at $33,320.

The Wisconsin contributions are nearly evenly split, as they were in the 2003-04 election cycle, between Republican- and Democratic-leaning 527s. Republican 527 groups received $147,404 and Democratic 527s accepted $143,272 from Wisconsin contributors. The remaining $200 went to a 527 group that has supported Republicans and Democrats.

Friday, September 02, 2005

Schoolhouse Rock, It Ain't

For an "evil, adult version" of How a Bill Becomes a Law, check out this article in Rolling Stone magazine. This first-person account of a month on the Hill speaks volumes about the rot at the top in our nation's capital. But it also sounds themes that are hauntingly familiar to anyone who is familiar with the goings-on in our State Capitol right here in Wisconsin.

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Dick Armey Declares War On Wisconsin's High Court

As the Democracy Campaign reported in an e-mail update earlier this month, a national Republican front group run by former House GOP leader Dick Armey of Texas is about to launch an offensive aimed at influencing the makeup of the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Armey's group plans to spend $2 million to unseat conservative Justice Patrick Crooks, who angered right-wing interests with rulings on medical malpractice and product liability cases.

The source of the millions Armey plans to raise to defeat Crooks will be carefully concealed. His group flies below the radar, engaging in campaign practices allowing it to sidestep both federal and state reporting requirements.

Armey's army won't be alone in this battle. Big business lobby Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce also plans to weigh in heavily in the campaign to throw out Crooks. WMC is soliciting corporate contributions from member companies for a "Job Defense Fund" it will use to engage in anti-Crooks electioneering.

WMC also will have to take pains to dodge state and federal campaign disclosure laws because reporting the source of funds would reveal the corporate contributions, which are illegal under both federal law and state law in Wisconsin.

This effort to buy justice is part of a rapidly growing national trend. The Institute on Money in State Politics has released a new report showing that special interests raised more than $19 million to air ads in state Supreme Court races in six other states, with about three-fourths of the money coming from contributors interested in the issue of limiting liability in lawsuits.

Thursday, August 11, 2005

Here's Smoke In Your Eye

A recent Democracy Campaign report, “Gagging Democracy,” shows wealthy special interests that want to trash local land use, salary and public health laws that cost them money have contributed seven times more to legislative campaigns than groups that oppose preemption laws. Majority Republicans have accepted about 13 times more from special interests that oppose local control than those that favor it.

An aside the report doesn’t identify are legislators who have supported seizing local control even though they represent communities that want their own standards.

Topping the list was Assembly Majority Leader Michael Huebsch of Onalaska. He represents five of the 21 local governments that have passed laws to regulate smoking in bars and eateries, including Onalaska, the city and county of La Crosse, Holmen and West Salem. Yet Huebsch voted in favor of a bill to strike down local smoking ordinances.

It’s probably just a coincidence that Huebsch accepted 75 percent, or $49,544, of his large individual campaign contributions in 2003-04 from special interests outside his district.

Others who voted for the proposed state smoking standard but represent communities with tougher laws include Republican Representatives Leah Vukmir, Dean Kaufert, Mary Williams, Kitty Rhoades, Terri McCormick and Greg Underheim, and Democratic Representative Dave Travis. The proposal awaits action in the Senate.

Six representatives voted in favor of a proposal signed into law by Governor Jim Doyle that prevents communities from setting minimum wages higher than those dictated by the state, even though they represent some of the communities that set higher wages before the new state law. They are Republican Representatives Mark Honadel, Curt Gielow and Vukmir and Republican Senators Dan Kapanke, Alberta Darling and Tom Reynolds.

Monday, August 08, 2005

What Bush And Doyle Have In Common

Everyone knows President Bush has. . . how shall we say. . . a way with words. And everyone has a personal favorite among his countless misstatements and malapropisms. Here's one that's sure to stand the test of time, uttered on August 5, 2004: "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."

Whatever afflicts Bush, it seems Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle's got it too. Explaining how he foiled a plot by Republican lawmakers to politically embarrass him by cleverly exercising his veto powers, Doyle said: "They thought they had set a clever little trick box here by which you either had to choose between ruining schools or raising property taxes. In fact, I found a way to make sure we could do both."

Perhaps such verbal gaffes are just the inevitable fate of the oft-quoted. Or maybe they're guilt-inspired Freudian slips of the tongue. After all, before he was elected governor, Doyle spoke plainly about the excessive veto authority possessed by Wisconsin chief executives. "I don't think you should be able to go in and take a word out there and a word out here and create a whole new sentence," he said at the time. Now that he has the power to single-handedly ruin schools and raise property taxes, he sings a different tune. "Let's just say I see the world differently from the position I'm in right now," the governor offers in his defense.

It's hardly the first time Doyle's vantage point has changed his thinking. Before his election as governor, he promised to make campaign finance reform and a thorough clean-up of Capitol ethics his first order of business. After taking office, he ran screaming from the issue.